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Programming Archive

Put the kids to bed early, dim the lights and get ready to enjoy the music of one of soul music's most romantic and sexiest singers ever. Barry's hits included "You're My first, the last, My Everything" and "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe." Join host Tom Shaker for a tribute to a soul legend. It all starts at 7pm!

Drummer Ali Jackson and vibraphonist Warren Wolf – each born into a musical family – absorbed jazz from their childhoods. Jackson occupies the hot seat with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and his own Yes! Trio; multi-instrumentalist Wolf studied with John Locke and became an in-demand sideman and leader. They each bring small groups to the House of Swing for a contemporary percussive double bill.

There's a national callout to the men and doctors of America to sign up for World Vasectomy Day! WVD is the largest male-oriented global family planning event ever, taking place on October 18, 2013. The goal is to have 1,000 vasectomies performed across 25 countries in 24 hours. Organizers are asking American men to join their brothers around the world to put their "man parts" on the line to help the planet and encourage vasectomy as a viable family planning option.

Tune in this Sunday evening when Al speaks with WVD founder and Oscar nominated filmmaker Jonathan Stack who made his contribution by having his own vasectomy performed before the camera while filming THE VASECTOMIST.

“Our body is a site of continual invention” writes tonight’s guest on Inquiry, HUGH ALDERSEY-WILLIAMS. His new book ANATOMIES: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE HUMAN BODY is a wonderful and surprising look at our bodies and it’s various parts, and what people through the centuries have thought about them.

What are worst, most deadly events in human history? Our guest tonight on Inquiry has written a book that describes and ranks the world’s worst wars, genocides and religious persecutions. MATTHEW WHITE is a writer, researcher and creator of the on-line Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century. His new book is titled ATROCITIES: THE 100 DEADLIEST EPISODES IN HUMAN HISTORY. Tune in and learn what horrific event ranked at number one and why chaos is always deadlier than tyranny.

Gil Evans was born on May 13, 1912. In three collaborations in the late 1950s, he and his friend Miles Davis — steered their projects into a new era for jazz.

Their first album was Miles Ahead. This Monterey Jazz Festival concert is "Still Ahead," with music from the pair's second and third records, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain.

Porgy and Bess, by George and Ira Gershwin, was the first Miles Davis STEREO LP, coming out in 1958. A reworked Porgy and Bess was running on Broadway then (and again in 2012), and Nina Simone had a hit with "I Loves You, Porgy." In Davis and Evans' hands, French horns and tuba enter the brass section; the piano is subtracted from the orchestra. Davis takes the solos — he's Porgy, Bess, Sportin' Life and all. For Evans' riff, as well as Davis' reading, the jazz critic Martin Williams included "Summertime" in the 1973 Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz.

In between Porgy and Spain, Miles Davis made the greatest-selling jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue. Sketches of Spain -- released in 1960 -- was even more colorful, beginning with the cover art. Remember the gold sky and red earth, and Davis with his trumpet sketched in a silhouette on the horizon? Classic. Castanets and tambourine, flutes, oboe, bassoon and harp expand the ensemble. Davis is the only soloist, and the music comes from southern Spain. Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez was originally composed for guitar and orchestra, and "Saeta" and "Solea" are flamenco songs, although the sketches are only approximations of flamenco rhythm.

On our JazzSet, Terence Blanchard is the trumpeter, and he plays the role with commitment and emotion. Some in the audience were in tears. Musical director Vince Mendoza conducts the orchestra, and these Los Angeles-based musicians nail the challenging scores. The Still Ahead Orchestra project producer, Festival West's Darlene Chan — also a legend — once produced a Miles Davis-Gil Evans concert in Berkeley, Calif., in 1968. The Monterey Jazz Festival's Artistic Director Tim Jackson proudly produced this live concert for the 54th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival.

THE MUSIC & THE LEGACY OF THE ORIGINAL HIGHWAYMEN -- looking back at the half-century career of the 1960s folk group whose recording of "Michael" was the number one song in the world in 1961, and who performed their last concert together in 2008, some 50 years after they first joined forces.

R&B singer/songwriter James Ingram rose to prominence with the 1982 hit “Baby, Come To Me” (a duet with Patti Austin) and continued a string of successful partnerships with hit-makers including Quincy Jones, Michael McDonald, and Barry White. He has been nominated for 14 Grammy awards, including a 1987 win for “Somewhere Out There.” This week Ingram shares the inspiration for his chart-topping collaborations.

Tonight on Inquiry we talk with MICHELLE MAY, artist, designer and creator of the CIRQUE DU NOIR. The Cirque du Noir is a wonderful costumed art event held this year on October 27 here in the city. that helps raise money for the Worcester County Food Bank. Everyone comes dressed in black and there is food, an auction and a unique event called a live Art Fusion. Tune in and find out all the details about this fun and worthwhile event. NB: The artwork shown is by Scott Holloway, an artist participating in the Cirque du Noir.

A small piece of the Connecticut Charter Oak. A wooden chip cut from a railroad tie. A piece of cake from President Roosevelt’s birthday ball. A magnifying glass and chads from Broward County, Florida. All of these mementos can be found in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Division of Political History. Tonight on Inquiry we speak with WILLIAM L. BIRD JR., curator and historian at the Smithsonian about his new book SOUVENIR NATION: RELICS, KEEPSAKES, AND CURIOS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY.

British bassist Dave Green and I recorded this conversation at the 2012 I LOVE JAZZ FESTIVAL in Brazil and discussed his long career playing with everyone from Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins, to his band with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.